Anti-Robocall Statute Violates First Amendment–Gresham v. Rutledge
Arkansas has a statute that prohibits: use a telephone for the purpose of offering any goods or services for sale, or for conveying information regarding any goods or services for the purpose of soliciting the sale or purchase of the…
Anarchy Has Ensued In Courts’ Handling of Online Contract Formation (Round Up Post)
[Eric’s introduction: ever since the Ninth Circuit mishandled the already-muddled definitions of “clickwrap” and “browsewrap” in the Nguyen case, we’ve seen a steady decline in the coherence of the law of online contract formation. Judges can’t figure out whether or…
Judge Declines to Enforce Uber’s Terms of Service–Meyer v. Kalanick
This is an antitrust case against Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, alleging that Mr. Kalanick “orchestrated and participated in an antitrust conspiracy.” Uber moved successfully to intervene, and then moved to force arbitration (Mr. Kalanick joined in this motion)….
County Employee Properly Terminated for Facebook Posts Criticizing Police–Palmer v. Anoka
This is another case of an employee terminated for Facebook posts. Leah Palmer worked as a spokesperson for Anthony Palumbo, the Anoka County Attorney. Among her responsibilities were to serve as liaison between Palumbo and Sheriff Stuart (and other law…
A Tale of Two Spokeos
The Supreme Court provided important guidance about Article III standing, especially what constitutes an injury sufficient to satisfy Article III, in the Spokeo v. Robins ruling from May 2016. At the time, it was unclear whether the ruling was more…
Priceline Avoids Liability For Resort Fees Due To Its Onsite Disclosures–Singer v. Priceline
This is a lawsuit alleging that Priceline improperly failed to disclose “resort fees” in connection with its Name Your Own Price service. The service allowed consumers to name a price (bid a dollar amount) for a hotel in a given…
Twitter May Be Liable for Sending Texts to Recycled Cellphone Numbers–Nunes v. Twitter
This is a TCPA lawsuit against Twitter. The claims are based on text messages sent to phone numbers where the subscriber was a Twitter user and signed up to receive text updates but later the phone number got recycled to…
Courts Approve Terms of Service-Based Arbitration Clauses for Uber and Groupon
[Note: this is part 2 of TOS Arbitration Day. You can access Eric’s post from this morning here.] Online terms, and in particular arbitration clauses, have been subject to attack by plaintiffs’ lawyers. News reports have also raised the specter…
“Manufactured” TCPA Suit Fails For Lack of Standing
This is a TCPA lawsuit over unsolicited calls. Although plaintiff resided in Pennsylvania, she purchased 35 pre-paid phones with Florida area codes. The area codes were selected because they are comparatively economically depressed and thus more likely to get collection…
Preemption Dooms Suit Over LinkedIn Group Spam
This is a lawsuit over spam sent to the member of a LinkedIn group. The common sense failings underlying the claims speak for themselves, but the court ends up dismissing on preemption grounds. Plaintiff was a member of the “C,…